Today’s readings explore how desire can either sanctify or enslave us. Hermas teaches that purity is the vessel of divine strength; Augustine shows Paul rejoicing not in gifts, but in grace reborn within his friends; and Aquinas reveals that pleasure becomes holy only when it flows from love rightly ordered. Together, they ask whether our joys serve God’s glory—or merely our own appetite. (Philippians 4:15–16)

Readings:

Hermas, The Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5 — The Meaning of the Vineyard and the Purity of the Flesh

Augustine, The Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 26 (Section 40)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 34 (The Goodness and Malice of Pleasures)

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